Wisconsin Supreme Court to Decide on Mobile Voting Sites’ Legality

Election ballots are shown as workers count mail-in and in-person absentee ballots at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee, Wis., on Nov. 8, 2022. Scott Olson/Getty Images

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has stated that it will decide on the legality of mobile voting sites after a circuit judge ruled in January that the city’s use of a mobile van for absentee voting violated state law.

This stems from a lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a nonprofit conservative law firm, on behalf of Racine County Republican Party Chairman Ken Brown following the 2022 primary.

The suit contends that using the “election van” as an alternate absentee ballot site violated state law. The locations visited by the van provided an advantage to citizens affiliated with the Democratic Party or those who have a history of voting for the party.

Racine City Clerk Tara McMenamin and the Democratic National Committee—both named as defendants in the lawsuit—had requested that the state Supreme Court review the case directly, without allowing any lower appellate courts to rule on it first.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a 12-page order on May 3 indicating that the justices had voted 4–3 to take the case. All three conservative justices dissented.

Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, a member of the conservative block, wrote in the order that “bypass cannot be properly analyzed” when the case is still “underdeveloped for our review.”

“This case should proceed in accordance with usual process. Instead, even though it is not ready for review, this case sidesteps process to be taken out of turn and advanced to the front of the line,” the justice said.

“Not only are the issues and arguments unknown and briefing notably absent, but at the earliest, oral argument for this matter cannot be scheduled until fall 2024.”

Racine County Circuit Court Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz had previously ruled that the city’s use of a mobile van for absentee voting not only violated state law but also unfairly benefited Democrats in a primary election in August 2022.

Judge Gasiorkiewicz said that although state law does not expressly forbid the use of mobile voting vans, it also does not explicitly authorize their use.

“The absence of an express prohibition, however, does not mean mobile absentee ballot sites comport to procedures specified in the election laws,” the judge wrote in a 17-page ruling.

Justice Janet Protasiewicz’s election win in 2023 gave liberals a 4–3 majority on the court, improving the Democrats’ chances of winning a reversal. The justice in March denied Mr. Brown’s motion for her recusal from the case, saying she could “act in an impartial manner.”

The van was purchased with grant money that the city of Racine received from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, the nonprofit funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife.

It was sent to nearly two dozen sites in the two weeks before the primary, where it would stop by for several hours of in-person absentee voting before moving to another site over the course of two weeks.

However, plaintiffs have argued that the van was only sent to Democrat areas in the city and claimed that it increased the chances of voter fraud.

Katabella Roberts and the Associated Press contributed to this report.